Students learn about the importance and privilege of making healthy and sustainable food choices. They understand that many people in the world do not have the choice of what to eat due to food insecurity.

Service Experience

Students address a food insecurity issue through a service project. Food-relief projects include delivering food to and sorting food at a food pantry. They may write letters or advertise for a local charity or hold a collection drive. They can raise money in support of the organization or hold a food collection for people in need.
They may choose to raise money to purchase an animal for a family through Heifer International, the organization that gave Beatrice’s family the goat. Heifer International uses money that is donated to provide livestock and training to families in need. View the Heifer website at http://www.heifer.org/. The decision to address food insecurity should come from the children as much as possible – it needs to be an internally generated concept to truly take hold. Your group may decide to do more than one service project.

Students identify the USDA food guide pyramid as a source for guidelines about eating a nutritionally balanced diet. They identify foods and categorize them by food group in a game. Students recognize that the pyramid was designed for consumers of food in the United States and make inferences about why the pyramid might not be an appropriate food consumption guide for all regions of the world.

Students define food insecurity and scarcity of resources. They use problem-solving to share a scarce resource. Students work in groups to discuss how to be good caretakers of scare resources, such as food, water, and fuel. Then they discuss how these choices affect global issues.

Students recognize examples of food waste and understand that waste has an impact beyond themselves. They learn that many people in the world do not have the choice of what to eat due to food insecurity. They read about a girl in Uganda whose hungry family received the gift of a goat through Heifer International. Students will brainstorm some ways that they can address local and global food insecurity and take action.